The model crew was lead by Dave Goldberg who designed the models in cad and decided that as there was only going to be one model at for each scale to use a build up technique rather than a master pattern, mold and then cast hull method. The large models started with laser cut acrylic ribs strung along an aluminium pipe spine. Over the ribs was laid thin vacuum formed styrene sheets, molded with a rippled surface. The rippled surface replicated the way the real submarine hulls have a subtle indentation between the frames. Further detail was scribed and added to the styrene sheet surface. The nose and tail ends were carved in dense foam complete with the rippling surface and these were then used as molding masters for a cast part. The largest model weighed 175 pounds when completed (79kg).
Two scales of the Russian Akula class submarine were built, a smaller one out of wood at 1/96 scale at roughly 4 feet long (1.2m) and a larger one at 1/24 scale measuring 16 feet (4m) in length built in the same way as the larger Alabama. Both of these models were for use on the smoked in motion control stage and were primarily hung on wires from the overhead gantry system while the larger Alabama was supported from the ground.
During testing it was determined that the smaller models used for distant shots did not end up looking realistic enough and so the two largest models were the only ones that ended up on screen.
1/3 scale torpedoes, 7 foot long (2.1m) were constructed with air powered propellers and filmed underwater at the L.A. Swim Stadium. The physical effects supervisor John Gray set up an underwater guide wire and winch system to pull the torpedoes at the 40 miles per hour (64kph) required for the high speed shoot.
Also shot in the pool at the L.A. Swim Stadium was the destruction and implosion of the Akula submarine by the torpedoes fired by the Alabama. Three 20 foot (6m) specially fragile models were constructed from thin sheet lead over aluminium ribs by lead modelmakers Jim McGeachy and Ken Swenson. The thin lead sheets were hammered into fibreglass molds to impart the surface details and curvature. Inside the aluminium frame of each of the models were 7 glass vacuum jars end to end each rigged with a small explosive charge designed to shatter the glass. The very delicate models had wooden cradles built for transport and for lowering into the pool.
An underwater track and dolly system sitting on the floor of the pool was used to move the still positively buoyant model which was tethered by wires. Around 300 pounds (136kg) of lead had to be added to counteract the displacement of the 7 glass jars. The underwater dolly was moved by grips above the water at the poolside.
Once a take was ready to shoot the air in the glass jars was extracted by a vacuum pump and the hose removed. A series of electronically timed explosions was triggered starting at the stern and rippling forward to the bow. First a balloon filled powder charge for the initial blast followed by the glass shattering charges and finally a powder charge at the bow 24 separate events in all. Four high speed cameras and two high speed Vistavision cameras captured the action.
After reviewing the angles the director asked for some timing changes and bigger explosions. The remaining two models were slightly modified and three weeks later a second attempt was made which proved satisfactory and the third model was not required.
Bruce McCray supervised the painting of the models.
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ReplyDeleteThis may not have anything to do with the models in this movie, but there is a great story about "Crimson Tide" and its full-size submarine photography. Here is the article from "Entertainment Weekly," in May of 1995...
It may not rank up there with The Fugitive‘s train wreck or True Lies‘ Harrier-jet rescue, but surely one of the most memorable moments in Disney’s Crimson Tide is the submarine’s dramatic dawn departure from Pearl Harbor — if only for the ingenuity it took to film it.
In March, while editing Tide, which stars Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, director Tony Scott had just about given up on capturing authentic submarine footage for his Simpson-Bruckheimer thriller — especially after the Navy brass refused to cooperate because of the mutiny in the movie’s plot. Then Scott received a tip: The USS Alabama — serendipitously, the same nuclear sub featured in the film — was scheduled to ship out from Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor that very week. Since there’s no law against photographing naval vessels, Scott and company flew overnight to Pearl. When the Alabama put to sea the next morning, the director and his camera crew chased it from a yacht and a helicopter for six miles.
”The captain got on the P.A. and told us to get out of his way,” Scott recalls. ”Then he tried to outrun us. He finally submerged, which was just what we wanted him to do.” The luck of catching the actual Alabama (from among a fleet of 15 Trident subs) was ”voodoo,” says producer Don Simpson. And if the production hadn’t caught the Alabama in the act? ”We could have done a computer-generated shot using a model, which would have cost a quarter of a million,” adds Jerry Bruckheimer, ”but Tony wasn’t going to do that. He would have found a sub one way or another. It might have been a Korean sub. He would have gone over to Russia to get a sub. There was just no denying him that shot.”